MONDAY --  MEMORIAL DAY

Cheltenham Veterans Cemetery
Cheltenham, Maryland

In the gospel reading for today, we encounter what truly is a moment of the Good News:  Jesus will send to us the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth.  He says this same spirit "will testify to me" (Jn 15:26).  As well, Jesus say to his disciples "you will be called upon to testify."  So, it seems, we also will be called at some time and in some manner to give testimony about Jesus' place in our lives.  This is a mark of the true follower of Jesus regardless of our place in life or of the way God has blessed us in our lives.  St. John Henry (Cardinal) Newman, England's most recently canonized son, wrote a prayer that might serve all of us well ... and not only today!

"God has created me to do him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which he has not committed to another.  I have my mission --  I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next.  I have a part in a great work; I am a link in a chain, a bond between persons." 

We can be certain that everyday we breathe there will be at least one moment when we will be called upon to give testimony of God's love and care for another person; perhaps even for ourselves.  Where?  Only God know where and when he will call upon you to make his love a reality in someone's life.

And is this not what we are called to testify to on this Memorial Day  --  to remember our sisters and brothers who have made the ultimate and supreme sacrifice for each of us who enjoys our American freedom?  Are we not, each of us, "a link in a chain, a bond between persons" especially our fallen sisters or brothers?

"God, our Father, you have given us so much.  We give thanks to you for those men and women who gave their lives for our nation, for us.  Father, "shed thy grace" on our country today as well as those men and women serving our nation in the armed forces and diplomatic corps in so many different places."